Israeli Endgame

Updated Nov. 30, 2000 12:01 a.m. ET

The accolades came in fast and thick the night Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister of Israel in a landslide over Benjamin Netanyahu. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman hailed the neophyte politician as a "statesman" who could bring an end to the country's "national nightmare." Similar gush was heard from the Clinton Administration, which had dispatched its political hit team of Carville, Greenburg & Shrum to defeat the evil Bibi and, it was assumed, Give Peace a Chance.